M³ | The Blog

I always end up shaking my head when I see regular folk writing “fascism is [insert focus of ire here]” posts. I think most people get it wrong. I think most of it is liberals and conservatives complaining about this one thing the other side is doing and saying “that, right there, that thing I don't like you doing, that's fascism!”

Fascism is not government by the few, for the few.

Fascism is not government control of economy.

Fascism is not suppression of speech and ideas.

Fascists can and do use those things to achieve their goal, but those are simply tools and methodologies. Fascists will use any tool, any methodology—even those that are used for good by people who are not fascists—to accomplish their goal.

So what is their goal? What is fascism?

Here's what I think:

Fascism is the belief in a hierarchy of personhood. It is the belief that some people are more human than others—and, inversely, that some people are less human than others. Fascism is the belief that those who are more human have every right—a duty, even—to subjugate and/or exterminate those who are less human, by any means necessary.

A fascist's goal is dominion over all things by his preferred in group, and the enslavement or eradication of everyone else, including other fascists who do not fit into the fascist's preferred in group.

Why do I think it's important to make a distinction between the tools and methods fascists use and this ideology I see at the core of fascism? Because I think that if you see fascism for what it really is rather than trying to define it by how you've been told it behaves, you'll also see that fascism is in less of what we're told it's in, and it's in a lot more of what we're told it's not.

Know more, believe less.